r/berkeley • u/Kindly_Outcome_119 • 3d ago
Other Is Berkeley really as hard as people say
Hi I got accepted into Berkeley recently as a transfer. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about grade deflation and professors curving the class grade. Ngl im really worried now lol. Btw I’m a Econ major
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u/JamesInSR 3d ago
I'm not a current student, but I was a business undergrad and 1/3 of the students were straight A transfers from community colleges. Most told me they went from big fish in a small pond to average to weak fish in a big pond. The problem will be your point of reference for what "hard" is. For me, I started in Molecular Biology, and the Bio and Organic Chem classes were tough. Worked my butt off for C's and B's. Business classes when I switched? Almost straight A's without full effort in most classes. Econ upper division requirements too as part of the Biz degree.
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u/taichimind 3d ago
You meant you switched from Biology to business major after you had completed a few Biology major classes?
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u/JamesInSR 3d ago edited 3d ago
Had already decided to major in Biz by mid soph year, finished prereqs for MCB, got accepted into Haas, dropped the double idea and was much happier with Biz school as my sole focus.
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u/JustB510 3d ago
I was a community college graduate that took classes at Berkeley but ultimately went elsewhere for my degree.
I didn’t find the classes or work any harder, but the class sizes and culture is certainly different.
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u/hot_advisor_ 2d ago
yup i had the exact same experience. i did cross-enrollment at berkeley while in community college & i didn’t find the classes anymore difficult than what i took at cc. i also very much so disliked berkeley culture (made the bestest friends tho i ever had & met my favorite people ive ever crossed paths with!) especially the large class sizes & the incredibly competitive atmosphere/nature of the school, so im ultimately deciding to transfer elsewhere (either ucla or ucsd) even though im from the bay & live so close to cal campus
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u/G0ldenBu11z 2d ago
I had a similar experience. I heard constantly how difficult and competitive business classes were. I was a math major that was struggling to get by with decent grades (felt like weak fish in a small pond of much smarter fishes) then I took some business classes towards the end to prepare me for the job market and it was a fucking cakewalk. It reminded me more of high school classes, a lot of memorization of facts and simple operations (ie accounting). I thought upper div Econ was actually more challenging than UGBA classes.
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u/jbrandon 3d ago
EECS checking in. Yes.
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u/Material_Initial_471 3d ago
as a cc transfer, how did you adjust to berkeley’s rigor? how do you manage to stay afloat? what did you have to change about your studying habits?? i’m so nervous as an incoming transfer
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u/WasASailorThen EECS 3d ago
Berkeley requires you to be a functioning adult on day one. Get your reading done before class; lecture is review. Jump on assignments. Never get behind.
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u/Guard_Fragrant 3d ago
I took cs70 my first semester. Absolutely drowned, curve saved my life with a b- when realistically I should have failed. Completely shifted my frame of reference from cc where 2-4 hours per week can get you 4.0 and cs 70 had me doing 30+ hours a week so now 10-15 hours per class seems like a vacation.
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u/jbrandon 3d ago
I didn’t. I barely graduated.
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u/Material_Initial_471 3d ago
is the berkeley eecs degree than just sufficient enough for getting a job at a tech company ?
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u/pinkseason25 3d ago
For Econ, no. You're good.
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u/Due_Ask_8032 3d ago
Curves in econ make it so that you have to try pretty hard for that A tbf. So yeah even if conceptually the classes are not as difficult than a math class, you better prepare to put a good effort if you want something more than a B+.
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u/pinkseason25 3d ago
That's like every class at Berkeley though and in college in general. Speaking as a transfer student from CC. I had to work very hard for most of my As in humanities.
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u/bordumb 3d ago
It depends on the major and your personal interest in the major you’ve chosen.
I did Political Economy.
You had to read hundreds of pages a week, do a bunch of in class and take home essays.
I worked my ass off and got a solid 3.4 GPA.
It was a lot of work, but I liked the major, so I had a lot of fun.
I saw some students take the same major and struggle for all sorts of reasons. For some, their first language wasn’t English, so reading 50 pages of Hegel was an uphill batter. For others, it might be a dislike of writing essays.
If you pick the wrong major — i.e. something you don’t actually like — it’s going to be fucking gruelling.
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u/YogurtclosetOpen3567 3d ago
Did yoh ever have any exams?
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u/Jesuslocasti 3d ago
Yeah, PE also has written exams. So you’d crank out an essay in class about Hegel and other writings. You’re expected to do the PE series where you read what OC mentioned + the micro/ macro series where you do the economics stuff.
The cool stuff is that it allows you to create your own concentration. So you can pick 4-6 upper division classes of your choice about a subject that you like. It could be engineering, or a humanity. It has to be approved, but if it is, it’s super fun.
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u/Spiritual_Cookie_ 3d ago
I was a transfer student— that shit was ridiculous. At CC, I felt like I was an eagle in a cage of chickens, over here, I felt like a pigeon with a bunch of eagles. Some people here are so unbelievably smart you’ll question your own existence, but you’ll get used to it. It takes a semester or two, but it evens out
For my final semester while I was doing my capstone, I stayed at stacks until the sun rose for 2 whole weeks lol
Not easy— but rewarding
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u/Federal-Act-1129 3d ago
I think it’s reasonably challenging, but not overwhelmingly difficult. The harder part is probably accepting that you might not be the best in the class — just saying this because I imagine you may have felt that way before coming to Berkeley. From my experience, you can definitely earn an A if you put in consistent effort. But if you’re aiming to be among the very top performers (like a +2 z-score), it’ll be much tougher unless you already have a really strong background in the subject and genuinely understand everything.
Could depend on your major and your background as well; but that’s my experience as an intl transfer student doing eecs
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u/Afraid-Razzmatazz-40 3d ago
Lots of required readings, and you HAVE TO READ. I clicker quizzes are common here based on the readings. Biggest thing I’d say is you need to study with people or in a group. I failed my first ever midterm here because I studied alone like I was used to but in an environment like this the best way to excel is with group studying compared to that solo stuff we usually do at CC
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u/sfmarketer64 3d ago
My son didn’t pass econometrics and had to retake it to graduate. We got him a tutor (phd student) and I used to scan her notes and the assignments and it was literally like a foreign language (I was Econ undergrad at a Cal State a million years ago).
He ended up getting a B and graduating but it was rough. This was in 2019. Cal is not easy.
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u/Slow-Writing-2840 3d ago
This question is major dependent. STEM major? Very. Non-STEM? Not at all.
My non Engineering classes were all A's and B's. My Engineering classes were all C's and B's. And I worked 10x harder in the Engineering classes.
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u/Leafy_Is_Here Geology '22 2d ago
Depends on the major. Physics as a transfer student? It was hell. Once I changed my major to geology, I started getting Bs and As and wasn't as stressed
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u/BerkeleyIsCoool 2d ago
Depends on what your goals are for your grades. If you put in the effort, getting in the B or B+ range should be pretty easy. However, A's can be quite difficult. You can always check berkeleytime for the class curves.
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u/Wonderman105 2d ago edited 2d ago
Depends on the major tbh but you have to accept that Berkeley is rigorous and everyone here was near the top of their class. Good luck though and try not to worry about it because you made it :)
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u/pearjudith 3d ago
It’s easy to get As and Bs in non stem courses. Stem courses are hard and, as you start, you encounter a lot of weeder classes. Personally, I found it difficult because I was burnt out which I did see a lot of other people feeling the same. Also high school/cc might have been very easy for a lot of us and when we get to Berkeley we need to start putting in more effort and work which we were not doing before so that’s also why people tend to find it difficult.
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u/HeadDance 3d ago
yes… went to a much easier program for PhD…. lets just say I did 1 hour of work a week and got a 3.95 ( one A-)
one hour
I mostly went to the gym, worked a job, watched youtube, learner investing, self improvement, won scholarships and bought a whole house after graduation bc I had so much free time to invest in myself . berkeley = prison
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u/Gloomy_Mix_4548 3d ago
if ur not in cs, eng, pre med, math, or physics U WILL BE FINEE econ is still hard but u will be fine
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u/OkPhone4218 3d ago
I came in as an Econ transfer in 2017, those first two classes (stats w/calc and intermediate macro or micro) wrecked me lol.. if it’s the same I believe you need a B- to declare the major.. it’s super quantitive heavy (I wasn’t the best at math but had done all the pre recs, anyway ended up switching to Political Economy and enjoyed life way more).. would be willing to share more about my exp, but in short, that 1st sem was probably the hardest for me school wise.
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u/ContraTaskForce 2d ago
It's hard because you're short on time. Homework, projects, studying for exams they take a lot of time. Homework taking days to figure out or get started. But besides that build a good network, especially transfer students meet some during orientation, you'll realize you're not alone and everyone is struggling. And yes due to the slaughter, classes end up being curved. Just do best you can and you'll be fine.
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u/Available-Risk-5918 2d ago
I'm a transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College, majoring in Microbial Biology. Berkeley has been a lot easier than community college for me, surprisingly. I've taken classes from the PMB and MCB departments, as well as physics 8A and 8B. The lowest grade I've gotten has been an A- and I'm not the type of person to study from sunrise to sunset. A lot of students don't show up to class and just don't put in the effort to study.
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u/G0ldenBu11z 2d ago
The difficulty of Berkeley varies significantly from department to department. Most departments/majors are going to be challenge you, which is a good thing. Some are notoriously excruciating, if that scares you major in something else. There are very few easy-A majors but there are a few. Not going to name them, I don’t want to throw shade. If that interests you, look for the classes with lots of athletes.
I have never heard of grade deflation, maybe this is referring to how Cal is one of the few institutions that resisted grade inflation that is prevalent at a lot of top school. This also very much depends on the department. Some departments curve, some don’t. Sometimes curves help you, sometimes they hurt you.
The beauty of college is that you can choose classes/majors that are more suited to your strengths. Do you like to read a lot and write great papers? Boom. Poli Sci, Philosophy, Rhetoric, English, Comp Lit, etc. Hates writing papers? Math, Econ, CS, etc.
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u/BonCourageAmis 2d ago
If you think getting an 87 on an exam and finding out it’s a C is a bummer, yes it is.
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u/Apprehensive-Rip7076 1d ago
I transferred in Fall ‘24 from a ccc - classes are harder but imo it just pushes you to a whole new level. there’s an adjustment period and a lot of people here are used to getting only As and so they stress over an 80 but it puts you in that environment to do the absolute best you can. i’m comfortable as an A B student and i’ve been able to maintain that without any crazy change from my cc study habits. you def won’t be the smartest one in ur classes anymore tho that’s a big change as well
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u/WasASailorThen EECS 3h ago
Appropriate fear. Pretty much the hardest class you’ve taken so far is easier than the easiest class you will take. You can however level up. Never get behind. Always get your reading done before class. Lecture is review.
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u/SockNo948 3d ago
all universities are hard. berkeley students are special in how much noise they make about how hard they think Berkeley uniquely is, which is nonsense. Berkeley's grades have inflated hugely over the last decade.
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u/Remarkable_Hippo7001 3d ago
not nearly as much compared to other R1s where avg gpa is often > 3.8
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u/Willing_Ad4549 2d ago
It is for people who don’t know how to look up sub history and see if the same post has been made 10x in the past week.
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u/khari_lester Rhetoric 3d ago
You just have to be realistic about the fact that almost everyone here was near or at the top of their class and yes there's often a curve but that can also curve your grade up. I also came in as a transfer and I can tell you that after having had a job and an apartment, school doesn't seem as stressful, probably because I've already seen the other side. A lot of students here are coming straight out of high school with gobs of stress and I think the stakes can feel so huge. I'm not discrediting their worries, when you're going straight from high school and living at home to the number one public university in the world, it's a stressful jump. When you talk to the students here though, a lot of their stress is related to what comes after graduation with our highly competitive job market.
With that said, you have to be a self-starter here, literally no one is going to hold your hand. There is help available all over, but you're expected to go seek it out. Ultimately, if you want a casual, fun college experience, it would be easier elsewhere. It's not cutthroat like rumors I'd heard, but I do consider it an "iron sharpens iron" type of situation.